


The Song

by JessicaPendragon



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 01:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5111519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessicaPendragon/pseuds/JessicaPendragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellana teaches the mockingbirds of Skyhold a song.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Song

Ellana teaches the mockingbirds of Skyhold a song. It isn’t much, just a few short notes, some remnant of a lullaby he thinks. One day she takes him to the gardens and whistles into the trees. The birds repeat it back, spinning it round and round the walls of Skyhold until it is a resounding chorus.

“It’s for you, for us,” she says and wraps her fingers around Cullen’s hair. “When I’m gone from Skyhold you’ll have something of me to keep you company. It’ll always bring me back to you.”

When her scent disappears from his pillows, he finds himself standing on the ramparts repeating the tune. When weeks turn into months and he can’t quite remember the sound of her voice, this little piece of her becomes something steady in the midst of his turbulent seas. It begins to soften the lyrium’s call, replacing it with something born of love, not laments.

Cullen surprises her after a particularly long foray into the deserts of Thedas. He lets the notes fly and lets them echo before adding a second wordless limerick of his own. The birds pass the two pieces between each other, the melodies mixing and complimenting one another like they have always been together. Ellana throws her arms around his neck, laughing.

The song becomes famous throughout Skyhold and beyond. Soldiers bring back news of mockingbirds proclaiming it in the Hinterlands, across the Exalted Plains. It is an anthem of the Inquisitor, another reminder of her all encompassing grace. For Ellana and Cullen, it will always be something more. A lifeline, a hope, a promise. 

Until one mission she doesn’t return. The report crumples in his grip, rolls away under his deck, lost, when his shaking hands can no longer hold it. Lost like her. There is no body to bury so they burn a pyre in the center of Skyhold and its brilliance could never compare to her light. She is gone and there is no song that will bring her back.

What once filled Skyhold with life now fills them all with sorrow. When excited birds pass it between themselves unbidden, Cullen disappears deep into Skyhold until there is nothing but stone and silence. He can’t hear it anymore knowing she will never return, can’t sing with these broken cords of his heart.

Weeks later he crashes to the ground, overburdened by the weight of her absence. He will never hear her voice again, never feel her sighs moving across his neck, never have his heartbeat rise as her footsteps grow nearer. He has been left alone in an empty amphitheater where even her echoes are beginning to fade into forever.

So he sings even if it stings, even if it breaks him more because the quiet has become as unbearable as the noise. The birds remember the tune. All of Skyhold stops to listen as Ellana’s song seems to fill every inch of space again. Cullen buries his face into his gloves and doesn’t care if the music drowns out his cries. For a moment, he has her again. 

Softly, someone whistles the second part of the duet in answering. 

Ellana leans heavily against the threshold of his office, every part of her exhausted, tattered, except for the smile across her face. He knows it’s not a dream by the light in her eyes, by the way she whispers his name and it shoots like thunder through his veins. He rushes to her, hands running light over and across her battered body to reassure himself that this is real.

Their united song builds around them. It flows through the fields, storms up the stairs, travels inside towers. “I heard it in the darkness,” she whispers. “It brought me home.” 

Cullen listens to the sound of her heartbeat, the quiet exhale of her breath. She is a symphony swelling in his heart and there will never be a sweeter sound. He holds her close until all his fears and miseries fade away. Until there is only her and a melody that has brought them both back to life.


End file.
